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The Effective Executive cover art

The Effective Executive

Written by: Peter F. Drucker
Narrated by: Jim Collins,Timothy Andrés Pabon
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Publisher's Summary

A commemorative edition of Peter F. Drucker's timeless classic work on leadership and management, with a foreword by Jim Collins.

What makes an effective executive?

For decades Peter F. Drucker was widely regarded as "the dean of this country's business and management philosophers" (Wall Street Journal). In this concise and brilliant work, he looks to the most influential position in management - the executive.

The measure of the executive, Drucker reminds us, is the ability to "get the right things done". This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mold them into results.

Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can - and must - be mastered:

  • Managing time
  • Choosing what to contribute to the organization
  • Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect
  • Setting the right priorities
  • Knitting all of them together with effective decision making

Ranging across the annals of business and government, Drucker demonstrates the distinctive skill of the executive and offers fresh insights into old and seemingly obvious business situations.

©2017 Peter F. Drucker (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about The Effective Executive

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not exactly what a expected

The beginning was strong - Jim Collins has done a great job in foreword, but than it went from level 10 to level ...4. The narrator was very boring and made it really hard to focus on the boring topic to begin with.

The book itself reminds me a lecture from the old professor, who has a wealth of knowledge but has hard time delivering it. Some of the example provided were very good, but they were very rare and sporadic.

This book should be taken a pieces and rearranged and put together in different order with better organized examples.

Overall book provides very good knowledge and understanding of management and how to be an executive, but fails to do it in efficient manner and in order to get 100% out of this book you have to come back to it 2 or 3 times to get last pieces of the puzzle - something I am not thrilled to do after boring 8 hours of listening.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Outdated Text

Super outdated, and difficult to follow due to the outdated case studies that just seem irrelevant. I feel like this is the perfect example of finding a conclusion and manipulating a scenario to prove the point. Key principles are there if you can find them. It's painful to listen too and strangely enough I found that I learned the most from the last chapter which basically sums up all the chapters in plain English that's easy to understand.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Solid foundations for any knowledge worker

This book felt like an extended cut of "Managing Oneself" with much more emphasis on decisions and teams. Had I read the books in a different order or format this probably would have been 5 stars.

The forward does a great job summarizing the entire book. made this special edition worth it.

Many topics were covered from deciding how to contribute, making decisions and managing your time. Each has stories and examples throughout.

The advice is timeless, but grounded in stories from the time it was written. This is made apparent through hints at what a world could be with computers which are all bang on. I like it as it helps the book cut deeper into what makes to leaders work.

Would highly recommend.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

had a wonderful time listening to this book

it helped me focus on my import tasks for each day of the week. it has also helped me focus on my organization's long term goals and what I can do to move the needle forward

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Just OK - some good principles

Thought this book was OK. Overall had some good principles in them. Spoken about at a pretty high level.

Perhaps these were pretty novel for their time but the recommendations in this book are slim and generic.

“Make effective decisions by choosing what not to invest your time into.”

“Focus on one thing at a time.”

Perhaps these were revolutionary at the time but in 2023, these are overused cliches that lack meaning on their own - it takes an author of great skill to expand on them enough to make them meaningful again.

But Drucker hasn’t expanded on them at all, he’s simply stated them as facts, as if mentioning them was already revolution (which it may have been) and then told stories about how the principles were used in WW2.

However the book gets 3 stars because the principles are valuable and the book is worth a re-read. I’m sure you’d get more out of it after a second reading.

And perhaps it’s not meant to blow you away with the ingenuity of the ideas… and it’s more so a book you refer back to now again to see how well you’re adhering to the pillars of an effective executive: managing strengths, managing time, managing risk.

Nice performance by the narrator, no complaints there

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Boring

I usually love these types of books. But I couldn't get through this one. So monotone, and boring, dry.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Max
  • 2021-11-15

Boring and outdated

Couldn’t make beyond 30 minutes. Very boring voice and prescriptive “manual” how to be a good executive. Had higher expectations.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Must read

I try to read this every few years. This is my 3rd in the last five or so years. What is remarkable is that each time I'm reminded of better ways to improve my management skills, to be more effective in the current challenges I'm facing. Form innovation to communication Druker provides insight on how to achieve outcomes.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Much needed insight and instruction - loved it!

I almost didnt get this because of some negative comments on Audible. To my delight - the book was one of the best I’ve ever listened to. Full of applicable wisdom from an old-school genius in effectiveness for executives. Truth doesn't change with time. So the truth in these lessons holds up, even if the illustrations used are a few decades old. If you listen for the guiding principles, and are comfortable thinking through their application - you will find some valuable advice in the Effective Executive.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book

the narration could be better, very monotone almost felt like a computer was reading

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